


Marigold

by Tundra0Dragon



Category: Pikmin (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, More characters to be added, More tags to be added, One Shot Collection, but focus is on charl being dad, charlie is dad now, will probably be some minor ship stuff later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:28:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26502163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tundra0Dragon/pseuds/Tundra0Dragon
Summary: What happens when a pikmin sneaks into the S.S. Drake? What if the Captain finds her?What if he looks at her and goes “yes this is my child now”?Just a random collection of short stories in a rough chronological order in where Charlie decides it would be a wonderful idea to adopt a Yellow Pikmin.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 27





	1. The Stow-Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marigold is found.

Alph grumbled a bit as he climbed up from the Drake’s engine room. They had just escaped PNF-404 a few days ago, and were now well on their way to Hocotate to drop off Olimar. Recently, however, the ship has been making strange noises. Trying to find the cause of them was driving Alph _insane_ , as everything appeared to be running just fine. 

The noises had actually stopped that morning (or at least, what the Drake’s assumption of morning was), but that wasn’t going to stop Alph from searching. Problems like that rarely fixed themselves. But it was getting to be late now, and Alph simply couldn’t search forever. He’d have to come back again tomorrow. 

“Still can’t figure it out?” Brittany asked. 

“No.” Alph grunted. “Where’s the captain?” 

“Uh, in his room. Why?” 

“Need to report all this to him.” And with that, he made his way to the Captain’s room. Along the way he grumbled as he stretched. _Damn, I’m only twenty-three and this job is already giving me back problems_. He really disliked the others worrying over him, however, so after another good stretch he put on a brighter expression and then gently knocked on the metal door before him. 

“Oh! Um, now is a bad time.” The captain’s voice rang out. 

“Sir, it’s important.” 

“Oh! Uh... okay, make it quick then.” 

And with that, Alph entered the room. 

“It’s about the Drake, sir. I know the noise seems to have stopped, but I still can’t find what was causing it.” 

Charlie frowned, looking away a bit. “I see. I wouldn’t worry about it too much though.” 

“Why? Charlie, it could be something _serious_.” 

“Well, I...” 

It was then that Alph saw something on Charlie’s bed move. 

“Charlie, what was that?” he asked, stepping closer. 

“Nothing! Nothing at all!” the captain insisted, moving his arm out to hide whatever it was. It then became clearer to Alph - a lump under his covers was moving around. It moved out from behind Charlie and crawled around aimlessly until Charlie gently stopped it with his hand. The captain looked up, face red like a child caught stealing from the cookie jar. 

“Charlie, _what is it_?!” 

“... promise not to tell the others?” 

Alph couldn’t help sighing a little. He respected the captain a lot, and had even grown to genuinely like him as a person. But even he had to admit that the captain... wasn’t the brightest man. Even still, he cared for Charlie a lot, and there was a level of trust that could only be forged in situations like their own. “Alright, I won’t tell.” 

Charlie motioned for Alph to step closer, and when he did, he pulled back the covers. Sitting there, now dazed from the sudden light, was a yellow pikmin. 

Alph just stared at the pikmin for a moment, and then at Charlie. 

“Look, I didn’t bring her on board. I just found her this morning - I think she snuck in some time before takeoff... I also think her crawling around the Drake is what was making those noises.” 

Alph began to rub his temples. “And so now we need to turn the ship around and return-” 

“Well, no, not necessarily.” Charlie cut him off, talking uncharacteristically fast. “I was thinking that I could, you know, bring her home to Koppai and have her live with me!” 

Alph stared at him for a moment. “ _What_.” 

“I mean... the pikmin did so much for us. And they’re all so sweet. And when I found her – she fell on me after dropping out of some vents – the first thing she did was crawl up and snuggle against me. And I mean... look at her!” He picked up the pikmin, cuddling her as if she was a child. She stared at Alph with wide, almost pleading eyes. 

“I sincerely hope you know what you’re doing here.” 

Charlie frowned a little. “No, no not really but... I feel attached, okay! I’m sure I can take good care of her... I even named her already.” 

Alph sighed and smiled a little. No, Charlie wasn’t very smart. But what he did have was so, so much heart. “What’s her name?” 

“Duckie!” he replied with a goofy, but still genuine smile. 

“That’s adorable.” Alph giggled a bit. “But... could I suggest my own?” 

Charlie looked down at ‘Duckie’. “Okay, share it.” 

“How about Marigold?” 

Charlie hummed a bit. “I like that a lot, actually. But I also like Duckie...” 

“One of them could always be a nickname!” 

Charlie thought for a moment. “Alright. Marigold it is. And she’ll be a little duckie too.” 

Alph giggled more. “Well then, congrats on being a dad now!” 

Charlie tensed a bit. “A _dad_?” he looked down at little Marigold, who responded by reaching up and grabbing his nose. “I... I guess so...” he relaxed as he sighed a little, gently pushing the pikmin’s hand away from his face. 

Alph smiled as he stood up to stretch again. “Take good care of Marigold, okay?” 

“You know I will.” 

The two looked at each other for a moment, a strange feeling building inside Alph’s chest. Before things could get awkward, he nodded and left the room. 

Alph didn’t know how long Charlie could manage to hide the pikmin away from the others. He didn’t know how well she could adjust to life on koppai – or if Charlie would even be allowed to take her home. All he knew was that he saw genuine love and determination in the captain’s eyes. All he could do was hope for the best for the both of them. 


	2. Pikmin Care 101

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In where Charlie learns some things about caring for a pikmin child.

By some stroke of pure luck, Charlie was allowed to keep Marigold. 

Maybe it was because everyone was too exhausted by the food crisis to argue or even care. Maybe it was because this was now the third time Charlie had saved the planet. 

But it was most likely due to the fact that the media fell in love with little Marigold the moment they laid eyes on her. 

When they first returned, there wasn’t much keeping the cameras away from her. There was nowhere else he could take her, and everyone loved the strange little plant creature who helped save Koppai. Once he was able to take her home, however, he put in great effort to keep those reporters away from her. There was no reason to stress her out from it. 

With relative ease he was able to clear out an unused extra room in his house for the little pikmin to use as a bed room. It’s yet to be filled with much, but it did have a bed for her and various toys for her to play with. She didn’t seem to be interested in playing with them all that often, and mostly just kept them stacked in a corner. He did notice that she seemed very protective of them. He would also find random shiny objects in that pile too, from coins (which he usually let her keep) to kitchen utensils (which he’d take back because that was his only big cooking pot). He eventually bought her some of those fake, plastic gems which absolutely delighted her, and she promptly kept them in a jar in her little treasure pile. 

The first few nights she was fairly insistent on sleeping with Charlie rather than in her own room. After about a week of tucking her in and giving her something to cuddle with, however, Marigold eventually chose to just stay in her own room. 

Sometimes Charlie would worry about her getting lonely, as there were no other pikmin around. But she seemed perfectly happy hanging out with him all day, and the occasional visits from Alph, Brittany and rarely even Delta also seemed to help shake things up just enough for her. 

There was one day when Charlie had sat down at the kitchen simply to drink some fruit juice. This seemed to catch her attention, and it wasn’t long before she was climbing all over him and pawing at his drink. 

“Hey, that’s enough.” he said, pulling the cup away from her. “I can get you your own if you’d like.” 

Marigold simply looked up at him, tilting her head a little. She still didn’t fully understand Charlie, but it appeared she was slowly coming to understand a few phrases. He gently picked her up and set her down in her own chair, then walked over to the fridge. He poured a very small amount of insect condo juice into a cup for her, then handed it over. “See?” 

She looked at the cup, then at Charlie. The captain sighed and took a drink from his own – he didn’t think she would try to drink it. He could always finish her serving later. 

And that’s when she started to drink it. 

Charlie was a little shocked at first – pikmin didn't really have mouths. Then again, pikmin could drink nectar. She finished her drink quickly and began to make some squeaking noises that Charlie came to learn meant “happy”. 

“Glad you liked it.” he said, then finished off his own cup. 

Soon after that she had crawled into a window to sun herself, which was something the pikmin did quite often. There would be days where she’d spend hours just running around the back yard or even just lying in the grass to soak up some sunlight. Considering she pretty much never ate, save for the occasional glass of fruit juice, Charlie just figured that’s how she “fed” herself. Pikmin were plants. Kind of. 

Even though she could only understand some of what he said, Charlie would still try to read books to her. Maybe it’d help her learn? She was always entertained by the pictures at the very least. She also seemed fascinated by cartoons as well, even if it seemed as if she didn’t fully understand what was actually going on in them. 

Marigold was also, without a doubt, a brat. 

She would regularly climb up and “hide” on the fridge. The first few times she did this, it had taken Charlie ages to find her again. Thankfully, she didn’t know of any other hiding spots. Unfortunately, every instance of picking her up out of the hiding spot resulted in wiggling and yelling. He tried to make little caves of all sorts for her, but no. She wanted the fridge. 

Any time Charlie would take one of _his_ belongings out of her treasure pile? Yeah, more yelling. It seemed after some time she learned not to take things if she saw Charlie take them back, but it was always by individual item. If she couldn’t have that frying pan, she’ll take the other. Charlie couldn’t tell if this was a weird pikmin thing, or if she was being a smart ass. 

It took time, but she eventually behaved a little better. Being caught on the fridge faded from yelling and wiggling to just wiggling to crossing her arms and pouting. She stopped getting upset at Charlie for taking his things back (and slowly learned what she could and couldn’t take). 

She may be a brat. But at least she wasn’t intentionally being a brat. 

For as hard as this was ending out to be, Charlie couldn’t say he regretted it a bit. He enjoyed caring for her, he enjoyed teaching her things. Marigold really was his daughter now. 

* * *

Charlie sighed as he laid in bed, trying to fall asleep. He was interrupted by a creaking at the door. 

“Hmm?” 

Marigold climbed up onto the bed, and curled up next to him. She was shaking. 

“Nightmare?” Charlie asked as the pikmin pressed closer against him. “Yeah, I get those too.” He sighed and put a hand to her back, hoping it would calm her. It did a little. “It’s alright, sweetie. Your papa isn’t going to let anything hurt you, okay?” 

She looked up at him, tears in her eyes. She then smooshed her face into his shirt. 

He sighed again and held onto the pikmin. Eventually, she stopped shaking, and the two of them fell asleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just noticed that all of these are really short (I have the third part written and ready to go as well). Guess that's a good thing, but hopefully I can get some lengthier stories out of this scenario lol.


	3. Grandma Ysia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In where Marigold meets her grandma!

Charlie hummed a bit as he carried Marigold across the parking lot. The yellow  pikmin hummed with him, patting Charlie’s shoulder to keep their rhythm. He entered a wide breezeway, then stepped up to an apartment door. Charlie knocked on the door, then looked over to Marigold. “You’ll like her. I promise.” 

Marigold simply tilted her head. 

The door opened up and a small, old,  hoctotation woman greeted them. “Ah, Charlie! Come in, quickly now. It’s  awfully hot out there.” 

Indeed, it was.  Koppai’s wet season was coming to a close, and so the sun began to beat down on and cook the sandy earth. Charlie stepped into the much cooler house quickly, and was met with the sharp smell of cinnamon. Knowing his mother, she either baked cookies or tried to make a spell of some sort. Or both. Both was a likely possibility too. 

“It’s about time you let me meet my cute little grandbaby.” the old woman teased. 

“S-sorry about that. A lot has happened sense I got home.” he looked away a bit, feeling a little  embarrassed . 

“It’s alright. I know how they like to drag you around places.” her voice was laced with venom as she spoke, clearly agitated. “Enough of that, though. The little one is here now. Care to sit?”

Charlie nodded and sat down on the couch alongside his mother. He let Marigold crawl off of him, and the  pikmin looked at the old woman with some curiosity. 

“Marigold, this is your grandma, Grandma Yisa.” Charlie spoke softly, hoping that Marigold wasn’t too nervous. “Mom, this is Marigold.” 

Yisa smiled at the little  pikmin . “Now aren't you a cutie?” she cooed. 

The yellow  pikmin tilted her head, and looked up at Charlie. “Go on,” he encouraged. “You can say hi.” 

Marigold turned back to Yisa, crawled off of Charlie and reached her hand up to her. Yisa smiled as she took the small hand into her own. “Aw, what a polite little child.” 

“... yeah, sure.” Charlie laughed a bit. 

“Well, it’s a good thing then that it’s your job to raise her and my job to spoil her!” she laughed a little, picking the  pikmin up now. Marigold squeaked from happiness and placed her hands on Yisa’s nose. 

Charlie sighed but didn’t say anything else. Yisa was now snugging with the  pikmin and baby-talking her, all while Marigold giggled with delight. 

“You said her name is Marigold? It’s a very pretty name. You should be proud.” Yisa spoke as she began to rock the pikmin a bit. 

“T-Thanks, but... Alph came up with the name. Not me.” 

“Oh! Alph! He’s such a sweet boy.” A large smirk appeared on the old woman’s face. “He’ll be such a wonderful influence for her. You ought to keep him around.” 

Charlie’s ear flicked. “Are... you trying to imply something?” 

“Maybe. I’ll let you decide.” she laughed some more, then handed Marigold back over to Charlie. “I made cookies for you two. Let me go grab them.” 

“O-oh, she can’t eat hard food. Closest I ever got her was a smoothie. It’s a  pikmin thing, I think.” 

“Chocolate milk it is then.” And with that, Yisa stood up and walked to the kitchen. She soon returned with a plate of cinnamon-sugar cookies and a small cup of chocolate milk. 

Marigold slowly drank her milk as the two adults ate and talked. Yisa asked so many questions – How was raising Marigold? How was he doing? How were Alph, Brittany, and Delta doing? Was Alph’s injury healing well? What did they think of Marigold? Charlie answered the best he could, keeping an eye on Marigold in case she dropped her glass. She never has before, but he couldn’t be too careful. 

The three eventually finished their meal, and no sooner had they finished did the clock go off. “Oh! It’s getting late. I should take Marigold home now.” Charlie spoke as he looked at the clock. 

“I see. Well, it’s always wonderful to see you, son. And I’ll always be happy to see this little one.” Yisa laughed a bit as she rubbed Marigold’s head. “Take care you two, alright?”

“Of course, mom, we will.” He picked Marigold up and stood up from the couch. 

“I love you two!” 

“Love you too, mom.” 

Marigold didn’t say anything, but she waved bye to Yisa and seemed delighted when Yisa waved back. 

With that, Charlie stepped out the door, the much cooler twilight air greeting him, and headed for his car. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Charlie's mom is a hocotation, so I decided to fashion her name after Olimar + Louie. Their names are anagrams of Mario + Luigi, and Yisa is an anagram of "Daisy"! Also makes her fit in with lil Marigold rather well <3


	4. Rainbow Bricks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alph gets Marigold a gift that she comes to love dearly.

Alph had come to visit, and he had a gift for Marigold with him. It was wrapped up nice and neat in pale green wrapping paper, with a shiny yellow bow stuck on top. 

“Ah, you didn’t need to go through all the trouble to wrap it up!” Charlie spoke as Alph sat down on the floor across from Marigold. 

“Nonsense! I don’t think she’s ever interacted with a wrapped present before. I’d like to know how she likes it, especially with the holidays just around the corner.” Alph insisted. He then turned to Marigold. “Alrighty then, Marigold! This is yours!” He slid the box over to her. 

The pikmin looked at the box, then tilted her head up at Alph. 

“Here, let me show you.” The engineer hummed as he scooted closer, then tore at a corner a bit. “See? Like that!” 

“Ahh!!!” Marigold squealed a bit, then began to tear at the wrapping paper some more. She neatly popped the ribbon off part way though, then suddenly ran into her room with it. 

Alph looked at Charlie. “Uh, do you have an explanation for that or...? 

“She’s adding it to her hoard. She should be back.” 

“Hoard. Right right, you were complaining about spoons going AWOL.” 

“... yeah. Thankfully, I got her to stop taking kitchen wear.” 

Marigold returned before Alph could reply, and promptly began to tear at the wrapping paper again. Soon all the paper was removed from the box and now lay in shreds on the floor (Charlie grumbled internally about how he’d have to vacuum that up later). The pikmin then stared at the box, unsure of what it was. 

“See? It’s a lego set!” He scooted a bit closer and pointed at it. “Just a random assortment of colors for now. If you like this, I can get you more kits!” 

Marigold made a strange “murr” noise, tilting her head again. Alph looked at Charlie for guidance. 

“She’s confused.” He sighed and held a hand out. “Let’s go to the kitchen table, we can teach her how to play there.” 

Alph nodded and accepted Charlie’s help in getting up. He picked the lego box up, and the two began to walk to the kitchen. Marigold followed closely behind them. Alph set the lego box down on the table, and Marigold climbed into a seat. The engineer opened the box up and soon the kitchen table was covered in a rainbow of plastic bricks. 

“Alright Marigold, see these bricks? You snap them together to build things, like this!” Alph snapped a few random pieces together and made a rather colorful wall. 

Marigold stared at him intensely before mimicking what he did. She lifted up her own lego wall, squealing with delight. 

“Yeah! Just like that! Well done, Mari!” Alph patted the pikmin’s head. 

“It’s very beautiful, sweetie.” Charlie added on, a doofy smile spread across his face. 

It wasn’t long before Marigold was building all sorts of things, even managing to keep everything color coordinated. Not that they looked particularly good, mind you, but that didn’t lessen how impressive they were nor how much praise the two koppaits continuously gave her. 

“Do you two want a drink?” Charlie asked. 

“Sure!” Alph squeaked. Marigold, now knowing what “drink” meant, nodded along. 

"Alrighty, come with me then Alph."

Alph got up and followed him further into the kitchen while Marigold turned her focus back on the legos. 

Charlie hummed as he poured three glasses of citrus lump juice for them. “Hey, Alph, I wanted to, er, ask you something. If that’s okay.” 

“What is it?” 

“Is... is your arm doing any better?” 

“Oh.” He looked away a bit, rubbing the arm in question from sheer habit. “It’s basically the same as when you last saw it. Wound was too healed over for the doctors to fix the nerve damage...” his voice trailed off a little. 

“I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t of asked. I just-” 

“No, no, it’s okay. There is one good thing to share.” The engineer then rolled up his shirt’s sleeve. From about two inches away from his wrist all the way up to four-ish inches from his elbow was a long, bright pink burn scar. Affected to the arm was some kind of... mechanical brace? “I, uh, made this. So that I can stop dropping things. It kinda helps, but needs some tweaking. 

Charlie couldn’t help but smile a bit. Of course Alph would find a way to make the best of his situation. The mission certainly changed him, but it was good to see it didn’t completely kill off his optimism or ingenuity. 

It was at that point Marigold realized the two adults were whispering amongst themselves, and looked up at them. Charlie didn’t like thinking about how the pikmin fought for them, died for them, and it now made him feel a little sick with Marigold as his adoptive daughter. But he couldn’t help but wonder if she was in the battle with the Plasm Wraith, if she was one of the pikmin who ran to Alph when it attacked him. 

He purged the thought from his mind before the knots in his stomach could get too tight. He handed a glass to Alph, then carried his and Marigold’s over to the table. The pikmin stopped playing for a bit so the three of them could relax and enjoy some juice. 

“Is this a pikmin?” Alph suddenly asked, picking up a bulky blue thing from the table. 

It certainly looked like a blue pikmin, but also not really. A child’s attempt at a pikmin, clearly. It was too top-heavy to stand on its own, and the stem was disproportionately short. But it was a little lego pikmin none the less, and more importantly it was a creation made by his child. 

“It’s wonderful. I should keep it on the shelf.” Charlie purred a bit. 

“You should. It’s adorable.” 

Marigold just squeaked with happiness. 

With a little help from Alph, Charlie managed to create a stand for it so that it wouldn’t fall over. A bit of clear glue filled half-haphazardly into the cracks, and Charlie was fairly confident it would stay together. He got up and walked to the living room, and soon found a shelf to keep it on. He turned to Marigold and gave her a thumbs-up. Marigold gave one back in response. 

She didn’t have a thumb though. She just twisted a finger in a way that looked unnatural yet clearly had no effect on the little pikmin. Charlie chocked it up to being a pikmin thing and then promptly ignored the weirdness he saw. 

Alph stayed for about another hour or so, the two talking as Marigold put together and took apart and reworked countless more creations. Charlie was tempted to save more of them, but a lot of legos already went to the blue pikmin he saved and he figured Marigold liked legos a lot more when they weren't super glued together. 

Alph eventually had to leave, and Marigold gave him a tight hug goodbye before he went. She kept playing with the legos for a full hour more (which shocked Charlie, as she never had this kind of attention span for anything else except for sunning). Then she went up to Charlie, and made a few whiny squeaks that meant “sleepy”. So Charlie helped her clean up the legos, found a place in her room for them, then tucked her into bed. He gave the pikmin a quick kiss goodnight before turning out her light and leaving the room. 

He smiled as he sat down into the living room to get an hour or so of TV to himself. Marigold found something that she really liked. He’d have to thank Alph for that. He sighed and let himself get lost in his shows, wondering what Marigold would try and make next. 


End file.
